It makes us. It destroys us. The Feed is everywhere. It can be accessed by anyone, at any time. Every interaction, every emotion, every image can be shared through it. Tom and Kate use The Feed, but they have resisted addiction to it. And this will serve them well when The Feed collapses. Until their six-year-old daughter, Bea, goes missing. Because how do you find someone in a world devoid of technology? And what happens when you can no longer trust that your loved ones are really who they claim to be? Imagine that there was a single social media network, far more invasive than what we know now. In The Feed everyone is connected to everything. You can speak to friends and family immediately; all knowledge is available to you, humanity lives in a golden age. People’s emotions don’t need to be second-guessed anymore, you just know what they are feeling. Sounds pretty wonderful doesn’t it? You’d rely on this technological miracle wouldn’t you? I’d imagine you would give yourself over to the experience. Maybe you’d discover you were not able to function without it.  Now, imagine that The Feed was suddenly gone. Everything you had taken for granted…

Senlin, a mild-mannered school teacher, is drawn to the Tower of Babel by the grandiose promises of a guidebook. The ancient and immense Tower seems the perfect destination for a honeymoon. But soon after arriving, Senlin loses his young wife, Marya, in the crowd. Senlin’s search for Marya carries him through slums and theaters, prisons and ballrooms. He must survive betrayal, assassination, and the long guns of a flying fortress. But if he hopes to find Marya, Senlin will have to do more than survive. This quiet man of letters must become a man of action. I’ll begin with an admission. I can probably best be described as an anxious traveller. Whenever I have to go anywhere outside the local area, I become ill at ease. I’m a bit hopeless as soon as I find myself in thrall to the vagaries of strict timetables or pure dumb luck. Thomas Senlin finds himself with similar problems. Within hours of arriving at the world-renowned Tower of Babel he has lost his wife, most of his possessions, and any real understanding of what is going on. His only option is to follow the last words of advice his partner offered before her disappearance….

Lynn McBride has learned much since society collapsed in the face of nuclear war and the relentless spread of disease. As memories of her old life haunt her, she has been forced to forge ahead in the snow-covered Canadian Yukon, learning how to hunt and trap to survive. But her fragile existence is about to be shattered. Shadows of the world before have found her tiny community—most prominently in the enigmatic figure of Jax, who sets in motion a chain of events that will force Lynn to fulfill a destiny she never imagined. It always pleases me when I start to read a novel, and within a handful of pages I find myself completely hooked. The debut novel by Tyrell Johnson, The Wolves of Winter, is a perfect example of this. You can’t beat a bit of good old post-apocalyptic fiction, can you? Lynn McBride is a survivor, she’s had no choice in the matter. She has grown up in a world where incendiary politics has led to war, and that war has led to the release of biological weapons. Her family have tried to stay one step ahead of the conflict and the disease, and have ended up in…

One of my favourite novels of 2017 was the historic fiction debut A Mighty Dawn by Theodore Brun. The paperback edition has just been released, and the author has very kindly agreed to provide a guest post exploring one of the novel’s central themes. The Ragnarök as an idea has made something of a comeback in popular culture in recent years. Marvel comic books, blockbuster Hollywood movies, Viking TV shows and of course plenty of Viking novels have all used it to great effect. Like the idea of Armageddon – or indeed any foretelling of the end of the world – it has a powerful grip on the imagination. And if it’s got Tom Hiddleston anywhere near it, you know it’s hit the mainstream. In fact, Ragnarök was a concept central to the early Viking mind. They believed that fate was unfolding inexorably towards this cataclysmic event, when the whole cosmos would be torn by chaos and conflict, and fall into eventual destruction – the so-called “doom of the gods”. Our knowledge about these Old Norse beliefs comes from two sources. The Völuspá or Vala’s Prophecy, the oldest known poem in Scandinavian literature, parts of which date from the 6th century;…

Happy New Year! Please note: Marked for Revenge is a direct sequel to Marked for Life. If you haven’t read the first book in this trilogy then it is possible the following review may contain minor spoilers. Consider yourself duly warned… When a Thai girl overdoses smuggling drugs, the trail points to Danilo, the one criminal MMA-trained public prosecutor Jana Berzelius most wants to destroy. Eager to erase any evidence of her sordid childhood, Berzelius must secretly hunt down this deadly nemesis with whom she shares a horrific past. Meanwhile, the police are zeroing in on the elusive head of the long-entrenched Swedish narcotics trade, who goes by the name The Old Man. No one has ever encountered this diabolical mastermind in person; he is like a shadow, but a shadow who commands extreme respect. Who is this overarching drug lord? Berzelius craves to know his identity, even as she clandestinely tracks Danilo, who has threatened to out her for who she really is. She knows she must kill him first, before he can reveal her secrets. If she fails, she will lose everything. As she prepares for the fight of her life, Berzelius discovers an even more explosive and…